It's been a convenient tool for when I want to play around with a new technique and can't make a monetary investment in too-expensive supplies. The ease and immediacy of digital painting has helped encourage a more spontaneous output for me, and willingness to take risks I wouldn't have with physical paints. It's an upfront investment, but it has paid for itself in a very short while. I'm using version 11. The program currently goes for roughly $400/ £300/ €400 new, though it's readily available for much, much cheaper on ebay.
This is an animated gif: watch to see transitions.
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| Different stages in painting a portrait. |
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| The finished portrait. |
As an art student during the very early 2000's, digital painting was just starting to be A Thing. It was predictably controversial among older artists, but it was readily adopted by the young students who had a more pragmatic view of technology. I don't know that digital painting is anywhere near getting the level of respect granted to traditional mediums in the fine art world (could it?), but it's absolutely pervasive in popular art. It has upsides and downsides. But, so does traditional media. Like paint and canvas's prohibitive cost, for example!
When you first start using Corel Painter, you will likely find it a bit overwhelming. So many tools and brushes and functions. But you can get to painting pretty quick, actually. Mastering all of it's tools takes time, like anything else. One thing that does drive me crazy, though: the hotkey commands are all just sliiiightly different from the Adobe Suite. It's maddening going back and forth between those programs unless you change the key mapping.
Good luck to you!
